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A.M. Costa Rica's Second news page |
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José, Costa Rica, Monday, June 1, Vol.
15, No.
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 Ministerio de Seguridad Pública
photo
Saturday night
patrons mill outside drinking establishments in the Calle de La Amargura, San Pedro, while police continue their sweep. Police
sweep San Pedro bar zone
By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A sweep by multiple organizations detected 21 small quantities of marijuana and one dose of cocaine in a sweep of the Calle de La Amargura in San Pedro Saturday night and early Sunday. The Fuerza Pública said that of the 139 individuals checked, two were minors. There also were two British citizens who were determined to be illegal, police said. Officers also found 12 security guards working without a document showing Ministerio de Seguridad permission, they added. Conducting the sweep were 70 Fuerza Pública officers, members of the Policía de Migración, the Policía del Tránsito and the Patronato Nacional de la Infancia.  Ministerio de Seguridad Pública
photo
Fuerza
Pública officers stopped a vehicle containing five men and theassortment of weaponry above in La Cruz Saturday night. There also were ski masks, latex gloves and plastic ties of the type used to bind hands and feet. Elderly woman dies in home fire By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A 95-year-old woman died Saturday night when fire ravaged her modest home in Volio, San Ramón, Alajuela. She was identified as María Vega Madrigal. Fire fighters said they learned that she had problems in moving and that she was unable to escape the flames, The woman was believed to have been cooking. Relatives who live nearby arrived too late to get her from the blaze, fire fighters said. Blatter confrontational after re-election By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Newly re-elected soccer federation President Sepp Blatter has tried to distance himself from the organization's corruption scandal involving $150 million in bribes. Blatter said Saturday in Zurich that he was not the high-ranking official mentioned in the U.S. indictment alleged to have wired $10 million to the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football officials for a vote to select South Africa as the host country of 2010 World Cup. He also said the Fédération Internationale de Football Association will not make any changes to the sites for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to be played in Russia and Qatar. In an interview with the RTS Swiss television channel, Blatter implied Saturday it was not just a coincidence that Swiss police arrested seven high-ranking current and former soccer officials, including federation Vice President Jeffrey Webb, two days before the annual congress and presidential election. “Why didn't they do this in March when we had the same meeting. At that time, we had less journalists," Blatter asked in the television interview. “The Americans, if they have a financial crime that regards American citizens, must arrest these people there and not in Zurich in the moment we have a congress.” The seven have been detained, pending an extradition request from the United States where they are wanted on corruption charges. Among them is Eduardo LI, head of the Costa Rican soccer federation and a member of the international executive board. The arrests were connected to a bribery scandal being investigated by U.S., Swiss and other law enforcement agencies that has plunged the federation into the worst crisis in its 111-year history. Blatter also made it clear in the television interview there may be consequences for European leaders who tried to oust him from his position. Regarding an effort by Union of European Football Associations President Michel Platini to oust him, Blatter told RTS, “I forgive everyone, but I don't forget. We cannot live without UEFA and UEFA cannot live without us.” Platini, who helped Blatter first gain the presidency in 1998, led opposition against his former ally and has suggested European nations could consider boycotting the federation, including the World Cup. Blatter said he believes the Europeans are just bad losers after Platini's candidate, Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, was beaten in Friday's election. “It is hatred not only by one person at UEFA, but by the organization of UEFA that has not accepted that I have been president since 1998,” Blatter said in the television interview. The European association's strategy for how to deal with Blatter may become clearer next week when the European body holds meetings in Berlin ahead of the Champions League final. "There should be some kind of reaction," said the Dutch federation president, Michael van Praag, who had been running for the federation presidency before withdrawing last week to back Prince Ali. Blatter was seven votes short of the required 140 majority in the first round of voting, but his opponent, Prince Ali, withdrew before a second round could take place. After the vote Friday at the 65th annual congress in Zurich, Switzerland, Blatter thanked his challenger and praised him for his integrity and commitment to reform the federation. Blatter promised to elevate the federation from its current critical state of affairs. Addressing the congress earlier, Blatter said he will shoulder responsibility for the current storm of corruption allegations. "FIFA needs to recover its good name starting tomorrow," he said. The U.S. Soccer Association expressed disappointment in the result of the election, but congratulated Blatter. “We will continue to push for meaningful change within FIFA,” U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati said in a statement. "It is our hope he will make reform his number one property to ensure the integrity of the sport across the world.” Gulati added that the goal for the governance of the federation is to "be responsible, accountable, transparent and focused solely on the best interests of the game.” Blatter said this week's events have unleashed a storm, but he said he is appealing for unity and the team spirit so the federation can move forward. Unlike one day earlier when he said that he could not control everyone’s actions, Blatter said that he was “willing to accept that the FIFA president is accountable for everything.” Blatter also said Friday "I don't think we would have these problems today" if Russia and Qatar were not awarded the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, respectively. The U.S. was one of the losing bidders for the 2022 tournament. A U.S. indictment issued this week charges 14 people with offenses that include racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering. A separate Swiss investigation is looking into allegations of mismanagement and money laundering connected to the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. Qatar on Friday insisted its World Cup bid was conducted with integrity. The U.S. investigation stretches back to 1991 with allegations that include sports media executives paying or agreeing to pay $150 million in bribes in exchange for marketing rights to tournaments, as well as corruption related to the 2011 federation presidential election and the sponsorship of Brazil's soccer federation by a U.S. sportswear company. Li can have visits from family members By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The foreign ministry said that its consular officials in Switzerland have verified that Eduardo Li, the suspended head of the Costa Rican soccer federation, can receive family visits. In addition, they reported that Li has contracted a local lawyer, Thomas Sprenger. Li faces a U.S. request for extradition to face bribery and money laundering charges in New York. The charges stem from allegations that Li, a Costa Rican, ran money that was gained illegally through bank accounts in Miami and New York. British banks launch internal reviews By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Two British banks say they have launched internal reviews into how allegedly corrupt payments were funneled through their institutions as part of the years-long world football bribery scheme. Barclays and Standard Chartered were among dozens of banks mentioned in the U.S. indictment last week charging 14 media and marketing executives and officials at the sport's global governing body in a $150 million bribery scandal related to the award of sports media contracts. No banks have been charged with wrongdoing in the case. But as the indictments were announced, U.S. prosecutor Kelly Currie said "part of our investigation will look at the conduct of the financial institutions to see whether they were cognizant of the fact they were helping launder these bribe payments.  Cruz Roja
photo
The Cruz
Roja is issuing this equipment kit to 50 persons who mightbe first responders if the Turriabla volcano produces a major eruption. Cruz Roja workers and police will have the initial responsibility of moving those few living or working near the volcano to safety.
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A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, June 1, Vol. 15, No. 106 | |
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Picnic also
a farewell In addition to enjoying themselves at a picnic in Santa Ana Sunday, British expats here also said farewell to Sharon Campbell, the current United Kingdom ambassador. She is being transferred to Haiti. Mrs. Campbell and her husband, Christopher, arrived in 2011. He was non-resident ambassador to Nicaragua. |
 A.M. Costa Rica/Sheldon Haseltine
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| National survey says incidence of crime has not changed
since 2010 |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Despite law enforcement claims to the contrary, criminality in Costa Rica is about the same as it was in 2010, according to a national survey. At least one person in 20 percent of the country's 1.4 million households was the victim of a crime during the survey period, July 2013 to July 2014, said the Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos The statistical institute included the question about crime in its national survey of homes. The institute said that during that period about 285,000 households reported experiencing crimes, according to the survey. In 70.1 percent of the homes, only one person was a victim, but in 21 percent of the homes there were two to three cases. In 9 percent or 25,000 homes there were four or more crime victims, said the institute. |
The institute
also reported that just 29.7 percent of the crimes were reported to
authorities. The institute said that 35.7 percent of the crimes were those of violence. As expected, more crimes and their victims were found in urban areas. Some 7.5 percent of the crimes involving 106,000 homes were robberies outside the dwelling, while in 5 percent, representing 72,000 cases, the homes themselves were the target. The survey did not distinguish between burglaries and armed home invasions. The incidence of crime ranged from 22.6 percent in the central part of the county to just 9 percent in the Chorotega area in Guanacaste, said the survey. The institute said that the percentage of homes containing victims of crimes was about the same as in a similar survey in 2010. |
| Investigators suspect murder of whole family was revenge
over debt |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Investigators are speculating that the murder of an entire family of four in Santa María de Dota might be a response to non-payment of a debt. Judicial agents were alerted to the crime Friday when a visitor found the door to the home open and a girl, 9, tied to a bed, blindfolded and gagged. She was dead. Judicial agents launched a search and found the husband, wife and a boy, 11, dead some 200 meters from the house. All had been stabbed. |
The father
had the last name of Suárez, and the mother had the last
name of Miranda. She was 32 and he was 50, agents said. The Judicial Investigating Organization said officially that revenge over a debt was one of the motives being investigated. The agency also said that agents suspect that more than one person committed the crimes because of the number of victims involved. At least the mother had significant defensive wounds on her body. |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page | |||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, June 1, Vol. 15, No. 106 | |||||
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| Handful of commercial fishing firms control the industry,
survey says |
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By the Stockholm University news staff
Just 13 corporations control 19 to 40 percent of the largest and most valuable stocks and 11 to 16 percent of the global marine catch, according to new research. These corporations of the global seafood industry critically shape the future of marine ecosystems but have yet to assume this responsibility at the global scale. The new study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, makes an analogy between the largest companies in seafood industry and keystone species in ecological communities. Keystone species in nature have a profound effect on the structure and function of the ecosystem and disproportionately determine the prevalence and activities of other species. For example just a small number of sea otters can determine urchin numbers, or a few grey wolves determine the size of bison, deer or elk populations. Likewise, the study found that the average annual revenues of the 160 largest companies in 2012 exhibit a distinct keystone pattern, The top 10 percent account for 38 percent of total revenues. The identified 13 companies shape very large marine ecosystems around the world and are involved in both wild capture fisheries and aquaculture, including whitefish, tuna, salmon, shellfish, fishmeal, fish oil, and aqua feeds. Their combined annual revenues correspond to 18 percent of the global value of seafood production in 2012, about $252 billion). This handful of corporations, representing half a percent of the 2,250 registered fishing and aquaculture companies |
worldwide,
dominate all
parts of seafood production, operate through an extensive global
network of subsidiaries and are profoundly involved in fisheries and
aquaculture decision-making. Such omnipotence represents both a challenge and an opportunity for the governance of global fisheries, said the report. “The phenomenon of keystone actors is an increasingly important feature of our human-dominated world. Active leadership in sustainability initiatives by these corporations could result in a cascade through the entire seafood industry towards improved management of marine living resources and ecosystems,” says lead author Henrik Österblom, deputy science director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre. “Increasing demand for seafood has contributed to a global fisheries crisis, with consequences for marine ecosystems around the world,” Österblom added. Existing analyses of global fisheries operations have, however, so far largely focused on the role of countries, rather than industry corporations. “Several of the fishing companies we investigated are larger than most nations in terms of their share of global catches. Our study reframes the responsibility for fishing in terms of transnational corporations, illustrating that they must be included into the equation if we are to solve the global sustainability crisis in marine ecosystems,” says co-author Jean-Baptiste Jouffray of the Global Economic Dynamics and the Biosphere Academy Programme at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. |
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A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth
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| Senate accepts house bill on NSA for floor debate By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The U.S. Senate has advanced a bill to reform the government’s domestic surveillance program. The chamber voted 77-17 to begin debate on the USA Freedom Act, which gives telecommunications companies, rather than the National Security Agency, the task of collecting and retaining Americans’ phone records in the fight against terrorism. The bill was overwhelmingly approved by the House of Representatives, but failed in an initial Senate test vote a little more than a week ago. Sunday the Senate reversed itself hours before the midnight expiration of the existing program, which is now defunct two years after it was exposed by fugitive former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. For weeks, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had argued for a temporary extension of the NSA’s snooping abilities to no avail. On Sunday he conceded defeat, saying the USA Freedom Act is better than the alternative: no telephone records being collected at all. “Allow the program to expire altogether without attempting to replace it, in the face of growing, aggressive and sophisticated threats. That is a totally unacceptable outcome,” McConnell said. The Senate will debate the bill through Tuesday. Should it pass unaltered, it would go to the White House for President Obama’s signature. A statement issued by the White House press secretary after the Senate's action late Sunday urged lawmakers to ensure that what it called an irresponsible lapse in the surveillance program is as short-lived as possible. The statement says: "On a matter as critical as our national security, individual senators must put aside their partisan motivations and act swiftly. The American people deserve nothing less." This turn of events constitutes a major victory for Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Democrat who co-authored the bill. “The USA Freedom Act is a carefully crafted bipartisan compromise that protects Americans’ privacy but also keeps this country safe,” Leahy said. “This is a bill that does both.” For some, the bill’s reforms do not go far enough to protect Americans’ civil liberties. Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican who recently filibustered for more than 10 hours on the subject, said the bulk collection of telephone records by any entity is an unconstitutional threat to privacy. “We are not collecting the information of spies. We are not collecting the information of terrorists. We are collecting all American citizens’ records all of the time. Are we going to so blithely give up our freedom?” Paul said. “I’m not going to take it anymore.” Backers of the expired program said it had been much maligned by critics eager to inflame public passions about government snooping. “A portion of the public has been led to believe that big government is in their bedroom, in their house, in their car, in their phone, that it tracks them wherever they go,” said Sen. Dan Coats, another Republican . “It’s a bunch of hokum, and it’s wrong.” The Senate cut short last week’s recess by one day in order to try once again to address the NSA program. The chamber’s options were limited, given that the House of Representatives does not gavel in until later Monday. As a result, even if the Senate had voted to extend the program, House consideration would have occurred after it expired. Last month, a federal appeals court ruled the program illegal. Its expiration means there will be no need for a hearing of the case before the Supreme Court. Cubans pleased at removal of country from terrorism list By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The United States' official removal of Cuba from its list of state sponsors of terrorism is being celebrated on the Communist island and welcomed by many Americans. The move Friday brings the two Cold War adversaries a step closer to re-establishing diplomatic relations that were severed more than 50 years ago. The United States, in announcing the decision, said it is effective immediately. For many Cubans the decision means righting a longtime injustice. "We have always fought for peace, for solidarity. It was an injustice to put us on this list. Now, there is justice," one woman said. Another Cuban said, "Cuba has always been affected by terrorism, not to sponsor, not to put bombs anywhere. Therefore, it does not deserve to be on the list." A young woman said, "Luckily, they realized, they opened their eyes, that we are not bad." Cuba was placed on the list in 1982 for aiding rebel movements in Africa and Latin America. But Havana long ago said it had ceased supporting foreign insurgencies. Cuban President Raúl Castro made the removal a key condition for restoring diplomatic relations with Washington. Some U.S. lawmakers oppose rapprochement with the Communist country. U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida said Friday, "It is a victory for the oppressive Cuban government, but a serious setback for the oppressed Cuban people." But after several meetings with U.S. officials, Cuba's government in March allowed the launch of the island's first known free, public Internet service at a Havana cultural center. "Hopefully the cost of communications in Cuba will go down thanks to these new doors opening and that will permit this country to do many more things," said Alexis Leyva, a Cuban artist. The ease of travel restrictions has enabled reunions of family members separated for many years and it has enabled this American artist to participate in an international art festival in Havana. Defense secretary promises to find anthrax shipper By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter says he will find out who is responsible for mistaken shipments of live samples of the deadly anthrax bacteria sent by a Defense Department laboratory. Carter described the shipments as an unfortunate incident while speaking during a visit to Vietnam's Navy headquarters in the port city of Hai Phong. He said the Pentagon is working to limit any public health consequences and working to ensure that it never happens again. The U.S. military said Friday that there were more accidental deliveries of live anthrax spores than originally thought. Officials say that live anthrax samples from a U.S. military laboratory in the state of Utah were shipped to 24 laboratories in 11 U.S. states and two foreign countries, South Korea and Australia. The Pentagon has ordered a comprehensive review of the laboratory procedures. Contact with live anthrax can lead to a severe flu-like illness that could be fatal if not treated early. The Pentagon said Thursday that it has stopped shipping anthrax spores while the incident is being investigated. Police killings calculated at more than two each day By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A prominent U.S. newspaper says police in the United States are killing people at a rate of more than two per day this year. The Washington Post says 385 people have been killed nationwide by police in the first five months of 2015. The newspaper said at that rate, police will have shot and killed nearly 1,000 people by the end of the year. The newspaper says its tally of fatal police shootings is twice the rate of shootings counted by the federal government during the past decade. Police departments are not required to report their fatal incidents to the federal government. "We are never going to reduce the number of police shootings if we do not begin to accurately track this information," Jim Bueermann, a former police chief and president of the Washington-based Police Foundation told The Post. The Post's tracking of the police shootings comes amid a national outcry about the deadly force police use, especially in African-American communities and other minority communities. Included among The Post's findings were that half the victims were white, half were minority. But the newspaper said the demographics shifted sharply among unarmed victims, two-thirds of whom were black or Hispanic. The Post said blacks were killed at three times the rate of whites or other minorities. More than 80 percent of the victims were armed with potentially lethal objects, according to the report, while 49 people did not have a weapon. The report said while police are only authorized to use deadly force when they fear for their lives or the lives of others, so far this year just three of the 385 fatal shootings have resulted in an officer being charged with a crime. The Washington Post said its findings this year mirror an investigation the paper conducted earlier in the year that of the thousands of fatal police shootings during the past decade, only 54 had produced criminal charges. "Typically, those cases involved layers of damning evidence challenging the officer's account," the report said. Son of U.S. vice president dies after battling cancer By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The son of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden has died. The son, Beau Biden, the 46-year-old former state attorney general of the northeastern state of Delaware, died Saturday after battling brain cancer for several years. The vice president's oldest son also served in the military for one year in Iraq. Vice President Biden said in a statement that “it is with broken hearts” that he and his family “announce the passing of our husband, brother and son, Beau, after he battled brain cancer with the same integrity, courage and strength he demonstrated every day of his life.” Biden had been receiving treatment for the disease this month at Walter Reed Army Medical Center outside Washington. Vice President Biden said “The entire Biden family is saddened beyond words. We know that Beau’s spirit will live on in all of us, especially through his brave wife, Hallie, and two remarkable children, Natalie and Hunter.” The vice president said of his son that “More than his professional accomplishments, Beau measured himself as a husband, father, son and brother. His absolute honor made him a role model for our family. Beau embodied my father’s saying that a parent knows success when his child turns out better than he did.” Biden said his son “was, quite simply, the finest man any of us have ever known.” Secretary of State Kerry breaks leg in bike mishap By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will remain in a Swiss hospital overnight after breaking his leg in a bicycle crash Sunday. Kerry was hospitalized in the Swiss city of Geneva in stable condition. "The secretary had planned on flying back to the U.S. this evening, but after further consultation it was sensible for him to remain in the hospital for observation overnight for purely precautionary measures and fly home tomorrow,'' State Department spokesman John Kirby said Sunday. "The secretary continues to be in great spirits and active. He has done a range of phone calls including with the president.'' Kerry, who fractured his femur, will receive further treatment in Boston. A spokesperson said that because the injury is near the site of his prior hip surgery, Kerry will be treated by the same doctor who performed that surgery. He was in Switzerland for talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on reaching a nuclear deal before the June 30 deadline. Those talks did not continue Sunday as originally planned, after Iran rejected a Western demand to allow site inspections. Kerry had been due to travel to Spain for talks and then on to Paris for a conference on fighting the Islamic State group. A spokesperson says he plans to participate in the Islamic State conference remotely. Police make no arrests at Muhammad cartoon event By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Police separated anti-Islam protesters from demonstrators defending religious rights outside an Islamic community center Friday in Arizona. The demonstration in Phoenix was billed as a Prophet Muhammad cartoon-drawing contest and ended without any arrests or violence. Phoenix police estimated about 500 protesters showed up, roughly 250 on each side. Organizers, bikers whom police feared would be armed, said the rally was mounted in response to an incident earlier this month in which two gunmen opened fire on a similar contest in Texas where cartoonists were drawing pictures of Islam's Prophet. Both gunmen were killed following a brief exchange of fire. One police officer was wounded. One of the gunmen frequently worshipped at the north Phoenix mosque where Friday's rally was held. Organizer Jon Ritzheimer. a former active duty Marine, said the rally would be peaceful, but he had urged protesters to bring weapons in case of an attack. Ritzheimer invited thousands of bikers to attend the rally. More than 600 people had responded on the event's Facebook page by Friday. The shooting at the Texas cartoon contest was claimed by the Islamic State group that has declared an Islamic caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria. However, experts have questioned that claim and authorities have found no links between the two gunmen and the extremist organization. Californians face faults other than San Andreas By the American Geophysical Union news service While their attention may be inland on the San Andreas Fault, residents of coastal Southern California could be surprised by very large earthquakes and even tsunamis from several major faults that lie offshore, a new study finds. The latest research into the little known, fault-riddled, undersea landscape off of Southern California and northern Baja California has revealed more worrisome details about a tectonic train wreck in the Earth’s crust with the potential for magnitude 7.9 to 8.0 earthquakes. The new study supports the likelihood that these vertical fault zones have displaced the sea floor in the past, which means they could send out tsunami-generating pulses towards the nearby coastal mega-city of Los Angeles and neighboring San Diego. “We’re dealing with continental collision,” said geologist Mark Legg of Legg Geophysical in Huntington Beach, California, regarding the cause of the offshore danger. “That’s fundamental. That’s why we have this mess of a complicated logjam.” Legg is the lead author of the new analysis accepted for publication in the Journal of Geophysical Research. He is also one of a handful of geologists who have been trying for decades to piece together the complicated picture of what lies beyond Southern California’s famous beaches. The logjam Legg referred to is composed of blocks of the Earth’s crust caught in the ongoing tectonic battle between the North American tectonic plate and the Pacific plate. The blocks are wedged together all the way from the San Andreas Fault on the east, to the edge of the continental shelf on the west, from 150 to 200 kilometers (90 to 125 miles) offshore. These chunks of crust get squeezed and rotated as the Pacific plate slides northwest, away from California, relative to the North American plate. The mostly underwater part of this region is called the California Continental Borderland, and includes the Channel Islands. By combining older seafloor data and digital seismic data from earthquakes along with 4,500 kilometers (2,796 miles) of new sea floor depth measurements, or bathymetry, collected in 2010, Legg and his colleagues were able to take a closer look at the structure of two of the larger sea floor faults in the Borderland: the Santa Cruz-Catalina Ridge Fault and the Ferrelo Fault. What they were searching for are signs, like those seen along the San Andreas, that indicate how much the faults have slipped over time and whether some of that slippage caused some of the sea floor to thrust upwards. What they found along the Santa Cruz-Catalina Ridge Fault are ridges, valleys and other clear signs that the fragmented, blocky crust has been lifted upward, while also slipping sideways like the plates along the San Andreas Fault do. Further out to sea, the Ferrelo Fault zone showed thrust faulting, which is an upwards movement of one side of the fault. The vertical movement means that blocks of crust are being compressed as well as sliding horizontally relative to each other. |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's sixth news page |
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 Franco Andreone via
calphotos.berkeley.edu
Mexican burrowing caecilian
(Dermophis mexicanus)A rare surprise
in pile of garden mulch
There you are, working away
turning over the pile of mulch, when you jump back and raise the garden
fork to protect yourself. What the heck is that!! Snake? You get ready
to strike and stop. That can’t be a worm,
The whole incident has you creeped out, so you head inside to look through some books on snakes. No luck, so you hit in Internet. This takes a while, then you find it. The name, caecilian, is as odd as the animal itself. Caecilians are an ancient animal, unique, and, if you believe the books, rare. Once textbook points out that the majority of biologists and herpetologists have never met a caecilian in the wild. Be proud, you have them beat. Not just that, but you took the time to really look at an animal you thought at first was a snake and let it live. I have seen a caecilian in the garden under a rotting log. That is their habitat, rotting vegetation, compost piles, the loose soil under our feet. Like a worm, they live in the dark and their eyes are adapted to the dark. Their segments, like those of the worm, help push them through the soil but can anchor them while they use powerful muscles to push the head forward. And the head, unlike that of a worm, has bones in it. Another surprise is that caecilians are amphibians, like frogs and toads. In mud or water, they swim like an eel. The caecilian I saw? My first reaction was just like yours – I jumped back. My second, recognizing that this was no snake, was to make a grab for it, but it was too fast. This was probably a good thing because – last surprise – their skin secretes a substance that is hemolytic, not something you want in a cut or scrape. So there you have it; the gentle (to us) caecilian. Look for him in the compost pile and, if you find him, gaze in wonder. You have seen something many scientists have never seen.
If you would like to suggest a topic for this column, simply send a letter to the editor. And, for more garden tips, visit https://www.facebook.com/pages/Arenal-Gardeners/413220712106845 |
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| From Page 7: Ministry has to buy out artists' contracts By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The culture ministry has decided to cancel concerts planned for June 20 and 22 as a belated part of the Festival Internacional de las Artes. The ministry said it will have to make settlements with the artists who were to perform. The concerts had been scheduled as part of another festival planned those days for the La Aduana in San José. The concerts did not take place during the arts festival at the end of April because of problems arranging a contract for sound and lights. At that time, the ministry promised the concerts with most of the tickets going to residents of the cantons where the original concerts did not take place, Aserrí, Alajuelita, Acosta and Desamparados. The main reason, said the Ministerio de Cultura y Juventud, is because holding concerts would mean additional expenses that the Centro de Producción Artística y Cultural does not have. The Centro is an agency of the ministry. The estimated additional costs are some 50 million colons, said the ministry, nearly $100,000. |
